


Christmas lights keep shining on

by Voglioungufo



Category: Naruto
Genre: Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Uchiha Obito Lives, Yaoi, alternative ending, canonverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22105765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voglioungufo/pseuds/Voglioungufo
Summary: They were strolling down Konoha's shopping street when Obito said to him: "I can't remember the last time I celebrated Christmas."
Relationships: Uchiha Obito/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 7
Kudos: 46





	Christmas lights keep shining on

_Oh Christmas Lights  
Light up the streets  
Light up the fireworks in me  
May all your troubles soon be gone  
Those Christmas Lights keep shining on_

_(Coldplay – Christmas Lights)_

They were strolling down Konoha's shopping street when Obito said to him: "I can't remember the last time I celebrated Christmas."

The sun had just fallen over the heads of the Hokage, first leaving the hidden city in the shade and then fading the entire night vault in black. It was just when the last ray of sunshine had gone out that a countdown had begun and they stopped, just in time to see the huge pine tree that towered in the main square being lit by a thousand lights of different colors. It had suddenly lit up, shining the light on all the raised faces of passers-by who had stopped to look at him. The same had been true for the two of them and it was at that moment that Obito had said it, with the flashing eyes of the reflections of the lights. Before they were talking about something else, they were discussing about Naruto's boiler, who had decided to abandon him once again in the winter. Then the tree had been lit and both had stalled, for a moment forgetting the discussion, the heavy bags they were holding, the other people and that Naruto had been bearing frozen showers for a week.

"I can't remember the last time I celebrated Christmas."

It had been an admission said in a bitter tone, a little plaintive and a little lost as if he was digging into his own memories in search of one in particular without finding it, and Naruto had felt down. He had been unable to say anything as they walked on in silence.

Naruto had always had a strange relationship with Christmas.

It was an anniversary that was repeated every year, which excited him because all Konoha was illuminated and decorated with a thousand colored lights. Mistletoe hung on the entrances and the couples kissed each other, when you entered the shops there was always a basket of candy canes and in general people seemed much more cheerful. But Christmas is a holiday that is celebrated in company, with family and friends, and as a child he had neither one nor the other. He had no one to exchange a gift with, to invite into a snowball fight or into his own tiny house for hot chocolate. The worst was to go to the Academy the days before the holidays, hear the other children chat about their plans, get excited about the idea of the gift they hoped to receive and snort for the strange family traditions they were forced to participate in. These were all things he could understand just by looking at them. Once he had tried to turn on some lights, hanging the lights from the ceiling and an improvised tree, but he had only increased the sense of solitude. Especially when he woke up on Christmas morning and found it empty, as proof that no Santa Claus had passed by him. Naruto did not hate Christmas, indeed he loved it. But he loved the idea, the message, the tradition, what it represented and all that came with it; only that he had never tried it personally and for this reason he had always found himself envying others.

Things had changed a little after the promotion to the Academy. On his first Christmas as a genin she had also received her first gifts from Iruka and Sakura. Then there was the trip with Jiraiya and Christmas with him had been beautiful, in many different cities with traditions different from those of Konoha, but still exciting. Jiraiya and team 7 had made him feel that magic that for so long he had only envied others.

On his way home, he thought the same had been true of Obito.

He too had grown up without parents and was considered the black sheep of the Uchiha, he must not have had many friends, at least until he joined the team with Kakashi, Rin and his father. But Obito had also lived during the war, Naruto could not say if Christmas was celebrated during the Third Ninja War, certainly not with the same spirit as now, and when the war was over Obito was 'dead'. He doubted that with Madara and Akatsuki he had celebrated at least one Christmas, he probably hadn't even wanted to do it, it had to be something he no longer felt. After that there had been the period of coma after the Fourth War, the two long years in which he had slept and had not been able to enjoy the well-deserved peace.

Naruto stopped at the exact moment he set foot in his apartment, hit by the realization.

Obito had never celebrated Christmas.

A few weeks later, Obito returned home slightly worried. He was certain that something was underneath, that something had happened and nobody wanted to tell him what, because there were too many things that left him perplexed. First of all, Kakashi. Now he understood that the shinobi job was full time, that whatever the situation, they had to be willing to intervene and so on. But he really did not understand why he chose him among all the subordinates, not to mention that it was the stupidest mission that had happened to him in his entire career: to supervise the gifts that the Daimyo of the Fire Country wanted to send to the Daimyo of the Earth Country . Really, he couldn't understand why he had chosen a ninja of his level for such a low mission! Above all he had been alone to put up with that journey, no other companion with whom to pass the time and boredom.

Always talking about Kakashi and oddities: the way he hurriedly sent him away, without even asking him how he was or something about the mission, because apparently he too was in a hurry to go home to prepare for a party. The Hokage palace itself had seemed more empty than usual.

The other strange thing was that on his return no blond ninja dressed in orange had shown up. This, more than anything else, annoys him. They hadn't seen each other for weeks and not only had Naruto accepted his departure without even getting a little sad, but now he wasn't even showing up. He had hoped that once he discovered his arrival he would join him to greet him, to tell him that he had missed him, to be with him and ... He even didn’t know! He did not want a welcome back party, it was enough that his boyfriend embraced him and told him that he had missed him. Instead nothing, he felt terribly ignored and abandoned.

The last oddity arose when he entered the Uchiha neighborhood, usually dark and desolate. At that moment it was as illuminated as the center, with strings of illuminations that covered all the low walls that enclosed it. Inside, all the street lamps were lit with lights hanging between them and resting on the fences of abandoned houses, creating a real path of colored and shiny light.

The amazement increased when he realized that those lights were following the road to his home and he was struck when when turning the last corner he was dazzled by an explosion of light, as if the sun had suddenly risen.

Instead it was his home.

The house was practically unrecognizable because of the Christmas lights that ran all over its profile, which climbed the walls, the roof, along the porch.

Suspiciously he approached the path which had been shoveled by the snow and decorated on the sides with horrible statues of Santa Claus. A pair of shoes badly abandoned at the entrance only confirmed the suspicion that he could now give for sure. He hesitantly opened the shoji with a single push, obviously noting the pine crown with the red locks and the small pine cones hanging on it and the writing _Merry Christmas_ which headed in the center.

Inside the house, the situation was similar to the outside one: decorations, toys and lights everywhere; there was Christmas music in the background, probably from the kitchen, and the air smelled of cinnamon, sugar and chocolate.

"Naruto?" He called worried, sure he was in the house. The flashy orange jacket hung on the entrance hanger testified to this.

He took a few steps towards the living room, wondering what the hell was going on, but once he arrived in the large main room he stopped with his mouth wide open.

"Uh, Obito?"

He hardly noticed the arrival of the younger boy in the room, did not notice the Santa Claus hat he was wearing, nor the ridiculous pink apron he must have exhumed from Minato's closet. All his attention was focused on the huge Christmas pine tree, swollen with toys, ribbons and flashing lights, with a sprinkling of fake snow on the green needles; not to forget the absurd amount of gifts hidden under its branches.

"What ...?" He stammered.

"Surprise!" Naruto exulted and Obito finally noticed his presence, perhaps because he had screamed very close to his ear.

He turned to look at him and, after almost choking on seeing the way he had tanned himself, he repeated with more conviction: "What does that mean?"

"Merry Christmas!" He replied languidly blinking, then opened with a huge smile. "Do you like the house?"

The first thing he managed to say was: "I don't want to think about the electricity bill", earning an offended look, the second was: "Did you do everything yourself?"

Naruto smiled at the way he looked around, his eyes full of surprise moving over every decoration he had slipped into that usually bare house.

"I did the most, but the others helped me."

"But when ..." he stopped, understanding everything. "Bakakashi! Kakashi sent me on a mission all this time to give you time to do it! "

Naruto spread his sly grin, crossed his arms and nodded, narrowing his eyes.

"That's right!" He confirmed. "You came back just in time!"

He was unable to say or think anything for a few seconds. He could not stop looking at Naruto with that funny hat that slipped over his eyes and that apron that he had seen worn by Minato many times. He felt his heart crush in a vice.

"Why?" He asked incredulously. Why all that pain, that care in preparing something like that? He even sent him on a mission away from Konoha to do it and he was sure that all those lights hadn't been exactly cheap.

Naruto shrugged. "You said you don't remember the last time you celebrated Christmas," he explained simply, a soft smile on his round face, "so I thought I'd prepare you the happiest Christmas of all!"

He was still speechless, but this time he clearly felt that the grip on his heart was melting in emotion, he already had his eyes threatening to get wet. He sniffled to push back the tears, determined not to make the figure of the usual emotional whimper. But, dammit, if it was difficult to appear cold and detached after this discovery.

"You did it for me," she whispered without a voice, she must have got stuck in his throat with tears.

Naruto scratched the back of his neck, his self-conscious smile embarrassed.

"Actually I did it for me too," he admitted. “I have never celebrated a decent Christmas. Or at least, I didn't celebrate it _with you_. "

If that was an attempt to dampen the honeyedness of the situation, it failed miserably. At that confession Obito felt himself melt even more and the whole, accompanied by the fact that he hadn't seen him for too long, made him collapse on him in a suffocating embrace.

"I love you," he whined possessively, he realized that he too, just like the house, had started to smell of cinnamon and sugar and chocolate. That smell was so sweet, almost as to evoke a familiar sensation, which made him tighten.

"You are suffocating me, dattebayo!" The boy protested, wriggling a little.

After all, Obito knew he didn't smell of roses after his long mission. Reluctantly he released his grip, but Naruto didn't take advantage of it to run away, he only settled better on his chest and surrounded his torso with his arms.

"I missed you too. Sorry if I forced you to work. "

Obito looked around, still amazed at the way his house had been tanned.

"It was worth it," he assured. He took his face in his hands and stamped a kiss on his lips, what he wanted to do from the exact moment he returned to Konoha. "I have something for you too ..." he admitted.

His blue eyes brightened and looked at him anxiously as he untangled himself to slide the travel backpack from his shoulders.

"I got you a Christmas present," he muttered without looking at him, "but it's just nonsense. Especially in comparison to what you did ... I didn't even wrap it, but here ... I wanted to do it” he finished holding out a bowl for ramen. He had bought it looking for the one that was more orange and bright than the others, the printing of some jumping frogs had convinced him to choose that. He realized that as a Christmas present it was very little.

Yet Naruto took it with a wonderful smile, which reached both ears and raised it as if it were the cup of a first place.

"It's beautiful!" He roared excitedly. "There are toads!"

"Er, yes ..."

“I like it, I will eat ramen every morning. And at lunches, and dinners! It will be my favorite cup ” he babbled studying it better under the light.

Obito smiled and shook his head, wondering if it was real enthusiasm or if he was trying hard to make him happy. In any case, he decided that Naruto deserved a much better gift than a cup taken at a cheap shop in the Village of the Rock.

"Naruto, come here. The gift is not complete ”he called him sitting on the ground.

"Uh, how not?" He asked, stopping to admire his own cup, but the perplexity disappeared as soon as he saw the mischievous expression painted on Obito's face and was replaced by the expectation.

He approached him and crouched while the older one clung with one hand to the collar to push it towards him and the other on his waist.

"But I can give you this later, only tonight ..." he murmured and lowering his tone of voice, his lips touching the auricle, he explained to him what gift it was.

Naruto blazed as the hand on his waist came down to cling possessively to his ass and winced as he felt the little slap preceding the hold. Obito finished his detailed description just as someone rang the doorbell.

"W-what?" Naruto stammered incredulously with red cheeks and wide eyes, the hint of a dreamy smile for the expectation.

"Oh, who will it be at this hour?" Obito amused him, leaving him near the tree still unsettled by all the promises he had just made to him. He himself anticipated that moment, but every perverse thought was erased from the mind as soon as, opening the door, a resounding "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" hit him and he found himself in front of a substantial group of people.

He could not say anything while they, without being invited, entered the house cold and rowdy.

"What the heck ...?" He murmured confused as he saw practically all of Konoha's shinobi enter his living room and leave his shoes on the porch.

Someone put a hand on his shoulder. It was Kakashi, a lazy amused smile under the mask.

"But how?" He said almost mockingly. "Didn't I tell you there was a party?"

He looked at him startled as he closed the door to avoid the freezing wind from entering the house. Still puzzled he looked at the group of people who exchanged kisses and hugs and left parcels and baskets under the tree already swollen with gifts.

He approached Naruto, his black eyes asking for explanations. That simply smiled.

"What day is today?" She asked slowly as if she were talking to a child.

"It's the ... oh" he paused, realizing it. It was December 24th, Christmas Eve.

He watched the blond boy, feeling his heart explode with sudden affection.

"Did you invite them?" He peeped.

"You can't celebrate Christmas without a Christmas Eve dinner with friends, right?"

Obito bit his lip to keep from sobbing.

"Right," he confirmed, the tears that now flooded his face, it was perfectly useless to try to hold them back.

The feeling he felt at that moment, in seeing so many people filling his usually empty and bare living room, with all those colored lights to illuminate it ... was the same that he had desired for so long, that he had thrown away when he had joined Madara, who had tried fighting Naruto and who had pushed Obito to surrender to him. The feeling of being part of something, of a group; to be surrounded by a warm, palpable affection.

At that moment he was just grateful that Naruto had grabbed his hand and dragged him into that heat.

"Ohi, Naruto!" Sakura snapped, raising her voice, realizing that Obito was sobbing. "What are you doing that made him cry?" She inquired, ready to get angry at the friend's indelicacy.

Who already began to back away worried about the girl's fists, but Obito intervened before the threat could become concrete.

"Everything is alright". He sniffed, trying to give himself back a demeanor. "I'm just ... happy, so happy."

That answer seemed to reassure Sakura, who calmed down and smiled at the sweetness of that phrase. In a lively tone he informed that he was carrying the cake he had prepared in the fridge so that it would not be damaged. With a single knowing look, all those present agreed that they would make sure that the cake disappeared, perfectly aware of the disastrous culinary skills of the kunoichi.

"Usuratonkachi" called one voice harder than the others. Sasuke had moved from the group to stand right in front of the Christmas tree, which he watched with mocking black eyes. "Are you stupid or what that you didn't put the star on the tip?"

"He's afraid!" Snapped Naruto swelling with the offense and pointed a finger at him. "I didn't put it on because I wanted Obito to wear it, that’s it! I haven't forgotten! " he protested.

"Then put it on, you idiot."

"That's what I was going to do!" he shouted louder.

Immediately after Obito there was a red star in his hands, with the edges decorated with gold, the glitter that remained stuck on his fingers and the inevitable symbol of Konoha painted in the center. He was pushed by everyone to the front of the tree and they encouraged him as he stretched and stood on tiptoes to reach the top of the pine tree, where he licked that red star too large and too bright.

It was a trivial gesture, which perhaps everyone present had made every year, for every Christmas of their lives, for which it had lost meaning. But at that moment in Obito it seemed to hold the magic of all Christmas in his hands and to be supported by the affection of all those people.

When the star was firmly pinned to its place, it all seemed so perfect that he began to sob again.

"Oh, the usual crybaby" Kakashi teased giving him a powerful pat on the back.

"I got some glitter in my eye!" he protested rubbing his face and trying to hide the tears.

But Gai wrapped his arm tightly around his shoulders and proclaimed: "The tears of joy are the young virility of men, do not be ashamed of it!"

"Crybaby" summed up cruel Kakashi, then casually went back to the kitchen. "Hey, hey, let's open the dances? I am quite hungry. "

"Yes, let's go and take a seat."

The talking group moved to the other room, where the table had already been prepared for the guests. Obito stayed behind, wiping away the tears.

"I can't come like this, I stink," he protested, pointing at the dirty uniform he was wearing.

Naruto smiled at him. "You can go take a shower, some people still have to come."

"Other people?" he asked shocked, not sure that his home could have hosted other people.

But Naruto smiled mischievously and stamped a kiss on his lips before he could protest.

"Go wash yourself, I'll take care of it." He widened his smile. "Although I would like to send them all away to get the rest of your present," he added mischievously.

"The gifts are discarded on the twenty-fifth, even I know this," he retorted, returning the same suggestive smile.

"Yeah, I'll have a lot to discard," he agreed, sliding his eyes on his groin, the grin growing wider.

He chuckled and turned to go upstairs to the bathroom. From the kitchen door came the cheerful chatter of those people he had learned to consider his friends and from the top of the stairs he could see more clearly the even slightly trashy way in which Naruto had filled the house with toys.

"Obito" heard himself called before he could disappear upstairs.

"Hmm?"

Naruto smiled, that genuine smile that squeezed his heart every time and made him want to be a better person by his side.

"Merry Christmas," he said. But in a sweet, special tone, as if it were the confession of a secret that only they could share.

And Obito also returned that smile, feeling loved and happy as he hadn't been for too long.

"Merry Christmas".

It had started snowing outside and the bows shone colorfully because of the still lit lights that had brought him home.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This story was inspired by a beautiful fan art designed by a very good artist on tumblr (@ vita-divata) and I had to write this one shot. In particular, I wanted to write this fic in honor of Christmas and family celebrations. I realize that I am part of a low percentage of people who love Christmas in the family and that there are people for whom it is a real torture, but often I have the feeling that you snort out of habit, without thinking about all of them the good things. Maybe it's because I love my family, but every year I stop to think about what Christmas would be like if I were alone, without someone to celebrate it with and I feel sad, because surely I wouldn't feel the same emotion, in fact I would feel really sad. Just like litlle Naruto and little Obito ;__;  
> I wanted to write a story that reminded the focal point of this party, to pass it with the affection of the people you love.  
> Needless to say, I am as emotional as Obito and I started crying several times in the writing, what can you do.  
> The guide song of the lyrics is Coldplay's Christmas Lights, which I really recommend you listen to, is one of my Christmas favorites. The text is not really there, because it speaks of a quarrel on Christmas day, but I think the melody fits perfectly for what I wanted to convey. It starts sweetly, a melody that also has a bitter aftertaste (like those who love Christmas but have always spent it alone) and have a growing rhythm that becomes more and more cheerful, while maintaining that initial sweetness that gives that right touch of wonder, which in my opinion perfectly reflects the Christmas warmth and the affection of the family (therefore the moment that goes from when Obito discovers the street illuminated by the Christmas lights and the moment when they all arrive at his house). Then of course there is the parallelism with the light, since Obito believed he had lost his with Rin, but then he recognized the same light in Naruto and therefore I imagined that it was precisely the Christmas lights to guide him even at home, from the person he loves.  
> And then there is the phrase they repeat several times "when you're still waiting for the snow to fall, doesn't really feel like Christmas at all", which I imagined for the two children, who waited with trepidation to celebrate Christmas but no matter how much they tried they really felt it; but then in the end, when Christmas really came, it also started to snow.  
> Okay, I won't go further than I'm really getting too long hahahaha I hope you enjoyed the story and that it mirrored (or rekindled, you never know) the Christmas spirit ^^  
> I’m also sorry for my bad English, but it isn’t my first languages, I’m Italian :) 
> 
> Hope you spent good holidays <3


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